The Plasma Paradox

This illustration is taken from the October 22, 1990 issue of Awake! You will note that plasma constitutes 55% of the blood. Since the Watchtower Society allows Witnesses to accept the separate components of plasma, it is only reasonable to ask why they forbid the use of plasma itself?

Largely as a result of the work of AJWRB and its supporters, it has become fairly well-known that the Watchtower permits the use of all plasma derivatives. These are concentrates of specific plasma proteins that are prepared from pools (many units) of Plasma.

Plasma derivatives are obtained through a process, known as fractionation, developed during World War II, and are heat-treated and/or solvent detergent- treated to kill certain viruses, including HIV and hepatitis B and C. Plasma derivatives include:

Albumin: Blood contains about 2.2 % albumin by volume. Leukocytes – which are prohibited – comprise about 1% of blood volume, many Witnesses and physicians alike are puzzled as to why some larger blood components are permitted and some smaller ones are forbidden. The red blood cell stimulant EPO is an albumin based blood product.1 (Note: This Watchtower illustration is another example of the erroneous information the WTS publishes on blood. The correct percentage of white cells in the blood is 1.0% not 0.1%).

Albumin is often used to treat burns. A typical treatment for third degree burns (30-50 %) requires 600 grams of albumin. Producing this amount requires about 45 liters of whole blood. How can anyone call this “a small fraction” or say the Watchtower does not condone the storage of blood? Clearly these 45 liters of blood needed for one Jehovah’s Witness burn patient have not been ‘poured out’ on the ground as the Bible discusses.

The WTS quietly reversed its position on albumin in 1981 leading many to wonder whether the previous ban on its use was from God or from men and younger Jehovah’s Witnesses likely have no memory or perhaps even knowledge that its uses was forbidden prior to this time but these are the historical facts.

“While this physician argues for the use of certain blood fractions, particularly albumin, such also come under the Scriptural ban. . – Awake! 09/08/1956 p. 20

Cryoprecipitated AHF: The portion of Plasma that is rich in certain clotting factors, including Factor VIII, fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor and Factor XIII. Cryoprecipitated AHF is removed from Plasma by freezing and then slowly thawing the Plasma. It is used to prevent or control bleeding in individuals with hemophilia and von Willebrand’s disease, which are common, inherited major coagulation abnormalities. Its use in these conditions is reserved for times when viral-inactivated concentrates containing Factor VIII and von Willebrand factor are unavailable and Plasma components must be used.

Immunoglobulins:Travelers are often injected with cholera vaccine and Jehovah’s Witnesses accept this. A single injection requires 3 liters of whole blood. This blood, again, is stored.

RhO Immune Globulin (RhoGam): Given to Rh negative mothers to prevent Hemolytic Disease of the newborn in future pregnancies.

Antithrombin III: Used to treat Antithrombin III deficiency.

Human Immune Globulin (HIG): Used to treat and prevent, among other things, Hepatitis A

Hemophiliac preparations (Factor VIII and IX): Effective treatment requires a preparation called factor VIII, which assists in clotting and is made of the pooled blood of many individuals. The WTS has frequently argued that these are small blood fractions. In truth, however, it takes about 9000 kilograms of whole blood to make one 0.1 gram dose of Factor VIII. A person suffering from severe hemophilia typically requires several doses a year.

The Watchtower Society is not ignorant of this:

“Each batch of Factor VIII is made from plasma that is pooled from as many as 2,500 blood donors.” (The Watchtower, June 15, 1985, p. 30)

“Dr. Margaret Hilgartner of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center said: “A severe hemophiliac is exposed to the blood of 800,000 to 1 million different people every year.”” (Awake! Oct. 8, 1988, p. 11)

More than 250,000 blood donations are required annually to produce the factor VIII, and factor IX that is consumed by the Jehovah’s Witness community. Huge vats could be filled with all of the human blood that is stored and processed to meet the needs of Jehovah’s Witness Hemophiliacs.

The Watchtower glosses over these facts when explaining why it allows use of these “small fractions,” but cynically emphasizes them when it uses AIDS as propaganda against blood transfusions. Then, of course, it boasts how the blood prohibition protects Jehovah’s Witnesses from AIDS. But as we see here, Factor VIII is permitted, so the blood prohibition gives no protection to hemophiliacs.

It is baffling that the Watchtower society will allow all of the above components to be transfused or injected into a Witnesses patient separately, but if you were to take all of them at once and add water the resultant mix (plasma or FFP) is forbidden. It has been said that this is the equivalent of a doctor telling a patient that he may not eat ham and swiss on rye sandwiches. However, he may take the sandwich apart and eat the separate components of the sandwich. Another analogy worth considering is likening blood or plasma to a stolen car yet permitting this same stolen car to be dismantled and lawfully sold as spare parts. The Watchtower is caught in a maze of legalism and nit-picking. We have seen above that the WTS’ prohibition against storing blood is hopelessly inconsistent.

“The Concentration of Albumin is about 40mg/ml, an amount that represents about 60% of the total plasma protein.” Ibid p. 308

Comment: Since 55% of the total blood volume is plasma and 7% of that plasma is protein and 60% of that protein is albumin, then figuring the percentage that albumin comprises of the total blood volume is accomplished by the following computation: .6 X 7 X .55 equals 2.31 percent.

See the following WTS references for a historical verification of changes in policy:

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4 Comments

Jennifer
on July 31, 2015 at 5:59 PM

What is the underlying reason that JW policy is against blood? What do they possibly gain by perpetuating this nebulous and incoherent policy? Parents, do not sacrifice your dear children or yourselves at the hand of this policy. Save your lives and apologize later!

The BLOOD LAW does not fit with any other law of being unclean (until God says quit calling unclean the things I have cleansed; cleansing is a reality not a blessing or prayer over it). The LAW on blood is about trusting a greater bigger better sacrifice will come that saves all lives even those already dead. It is a ritual LAW not a cleanliness fact or law. To divide it up like Pharisee rules diminishes the whole sacredness of it. It says the blood collected for hospitals from all sinners is greater than a better solution God will prove real, a resurrection of flesh to return as flesh. NOW children are another matter. Children are raped more than just sexually. Their minds are raped by adults who make wars of issues. Their conscience is ripped until they don’t have one. BOTH sides are guilty for the children they thus get, all under 18. At 19 my mother destroyed annulled an engagement my brother made without her knowledge. Last month in 2017 he sat down in her house and said you are not my mother, I am not yours son, I am your BROTHER, and you must listen to me while I cram down your throat that YOU destroyed my life by breaking that engagement. This was religiously induced by the powers that be in the church, the appointed devils and demons.
Today I will canvass a neighborhood with my ordained minister card, around the elder who came to 86-year old mom, and I will protest by handing out the photos of my sister, her 13 yr old daughter, and the 15 yr old boy whose mother threw my sister out for weeks of sex with her son. In 2013 I private messaged Facebook Dawn Fletcher to leave her comments to herself (not probing my life via my mother) and stated how they study with my pedophile sister. She took it to an elder, who verbally threw me out last month 2017 of my mom’s house (during recuperating surgery) asking if I recalled that message to Dawn, and boasted he threw it away as TRASH to say my sister had sex with a non-JW child. They take her door-to-door so what happens to the NEXT Bible study who has a 15 year old too cute not to give sex lessons to.

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